Monday, November 07, 2011

Rai Rai Ken ~ Ramen Deal-icious!

We had been eating an assortment of snacks and pearl shakes at the cemetery while watching a pair of guys assemble a tent nearby my father-in-law's grave... funny how when one would attach a pole to a connector, another pole disconnects somewhere... and they both struggled at this till 2 more guys came in to help them. We didn't realize how much we'd eaten because we were distracted by the scene before us... picturing out in our minds how they should have assembled the tent with less mishaps, jokingly whispering among ourselves that All Saints Day would be over before they would have that tent up, LOL~ But they were able to setup the tent, at last, with the help of others... just in time for lunch.

Every year, we go to the cemetery on November 1 to bring flowers and light candles at my father-in-law's grave, as his death anniversary is exactly on that day. We usually go in the morning then have our lunch at a nearby mall. SM Masinag had just opened this year, so we decided to go there for lunch. And there we stood in the middle of the mall, deciding where to eat. None of us were really hungry with all that snacking we did at the cemetery... I just wanted to have a bowl of soup myself... so I suggested we take a look at the ramen offerings at Rai Rai Ken.

We haven't eaten at Rai Rai Ken before, so I was excited to try out their ramen and dumplings. We were in luck! They had a promo on their Ippin Ryori... Order any of these new Ippin Ryori and get 50% in all Ramen...

So we ordered a Niku Nira, which was a vegetable dish of kuchay, bean sprouts and pork slices, and Niniku Gyoza, steamed pork dumplings.

We chose 3 different ramen flavors: Shio Ramen, Chasyu Ramen and Kanton Men. Each bowl is large enough for one hungry person... but since we weren't, we decided to share. (The prices shown on the picture below are already 50% off the regular price).

While waiting for our orders, I took pictures of the place... and my family... hindi mukhang gutom kasi naka-ngiti pa lahat ~

The steamed pork dumplings arrived first... it was topped with garlic-chili paste and served with soy sauce. It was deliciously bitin! So we ordered another gyoza dish, but this time we chose the Shark's Fin Gyoza.

The Niku Nira was refreshingly crunchy and lightly flavored. This dish went well with the ramen we ordered.

Kanton Men, mixed seafoods Kanton style... shared by my sons Moji and Jeriel. I asked how it tasted... Moji described it as like eating pancit canton with soup... I tried a spoonful, and yes, it was an appropriate description :D

Mel and Hannah shared this bowl of Chasyu Ramen, or roast pork ramen. The broth was flavorful and the pork slices were very tender.

Sarah and I shared in the Shio Ramen, or clear soup ramen. It didn't look much like in the poster photo, but as soon as I had a spoonful, this was instantly my favorite... I loved the light clear soup, the freshly blanched vegetables, the perfectly cooked noodles, and the pork was very tender to the bite.

I was very happy with our meal... I liked what I ate and we didn't spend a lot to have this deal-icious lunch... total bill: P667.50 for the six of us! We wanted to order dessert, too bad they didn't have any available that day... maybe next time.

Rai Rai Ken is located at the 2nd level of SM Masinag, beside the supermarket.

Who Am I?

I'm broke but I'm happy, I'm poor but I'm kind, I'm short but I'm healthy, yeah... ~Hand in my pocket / Alanis Morissette.....................................
Well... this is as far as the song goes for me.